Reuters has reported on data from energy think tank Ember which indicates that over the first four months of 2024, Turkey was Europe’s largest producer of coal-fired electricity. Outdistancing Germany’s output of 34.6 TWh from utilities over the period, Turkey produced 36 TWh through April.

According to the writer of the article, while the figure represents a 6% increase on a previous high for Turkey in the period January to April 2019, the …”main driver of Turkey’s ascendance in regional coal rankings was a steep drop in Germany’s coal use during the January-April window, which was 32% lower than the same period in 2023 and the lowest for that time frame on record.”

This, he adds, is in line with decreases in German and Polish coal-fired generation of 42% and 19.4% respectively from the same months in 2019, and indicates “a sustained drive within major northern European economies to trim coal use in power generation over the past five years.”